


The Vault

by JoAsakura



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: AU, M/M, Survival Horror, trying to justify that boring winter skin that jack got
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-02-15 05:23:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13024134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: Ecopoint Antarctica is the primary emergency center for the research stations of the frozen south. When a secretive site called The Vault goes offline during the brutal winter, Jack and his team are faced with a terrifying discovery.





	1. ONE

_ECOPOINT ANTARCTICA; JUNE 14, 2076. 10:00 am and dark as Satan’s frozen asshole._

“You wanted to see me, Colonel Song?” Jack rocked on his feet in the doorway.  The colonel’s office was brightly lit, even compared to the simulated sunlight in the hall.  Cheerful pop art lined the walls and a monitor on the wall showed an RPG character in idle animation. Clearly whatever had made her call him had interrupted her own free time as well.

Wintering over at Ecopoint had not been his first choice, but for many of the research stations scattered across the ice, they were the only option for help in an emergency.

And it wasn’t like he had much reason to go home this year, he thought bitterly, twisting the ring on his finger.

Hana looked up and scratched through her greying hair with a brief, tired snort. “Jack, please. We’ve worked together for, what is this, five seasons now? I’ve whooped your ass enough times at the arcade that I think we can dispense with formality.”

Jack laughed and wandered into the office, availing himself of her precious personal coffeemaker as the building creaked ever so slightly from the gale winds outside. “You’re the boss.” He took a deep breath of mocha and hazelnut and sat down. “What’s wrong and where?”

Her smile faded to something small and tight and Jack immediately went on alert. “Hana?”

She got up and padded past him to shut the door. “Have you heard of The Vault?”

Jack took a long sip of his coffee and nodded slowly. “Mostly through the rumour mill. An international black site built at an old Soviet waystation. Lucio thinks it’s the Frozen version of Area 51.” He said lightly, but Hana’s face didn’t change, except for the fine lines at the corners of her eyes deepening with the shift in her scowl.

“It’s located further south, at the Inaccessible Point. It’s supposed to be the safest repository in the world for the collected history of humanity. In case of the worst case scenario, I suppose. But they’re also a research station, and last year their deep core samples found something. My clearance is only high enough to know their existence, not… whatever’s going on there besides. But security protocols indicate they’re supposed to check in at Amundsen and Concordia… and us, under the callsign Sovetskaya 2, four times a day. They missed morning check and the last two have been automated comm pings.” Hana sighed. “I don’t know what they’re doing at the Vault, but you and your team are the only ones even remotely qualified to go there and investigate.

“In hundred mile an hour winds? Even with the Sledge, that’s risky.” Jack straightened up, already running the numbers in his head.

 “We don’t have a choice. And Jack.” Hana started, then stopped, rolling her own mug in her hands. “Jack, I looked at the roster. Three UN security specialists were sent there recently.”

Jack sat very still. “Gabriel?”

“He was one of them, yes.”

Jack sighed. “Hana, are you sure you want me leading this, then? If he’s… ”

“I wouldn’t trust anyone else. Jack. Both of you are professionals, and if he’s hurt, I know there’s only one place you’d really want to be anyways. Grab your team and your gear. Wheels up in ten, Jack. I’ll send the full briefing, what I have, at least, to your links.” Hana tapped her nails on the edge of her own mug. “And stay on comms at all times. The Sledge’s transmitters can bounce off Vostok and Concordia.”

 Jack finished his coffee and gave Hana a brief nod. “On my way… boss.”

 “Get out, and be careful.” She said, waitng for Jack to leave before she pulled the flask out of her desk . “Please be careful.”


	2. TWO

Jack shivered involuntarily as the winds pounded against the hangar’s surface structure. The Sledge, big as five schoolbuses and designed with cutting edge propulsion to move it through even the worst a polar winter had to offer, already hummed on the tarmac.

In the dim glow of the cockpit, he could see Oxton running her preflight, the engines spinning up to standby. He fastened on his Link, the eyepiece coming to life and the comms crackling. “How we looking, Tracer?”

“Rescue 76 is all green, commander.” She said brightly. “Just finishin’ preflight. Lucio and Angie are onboard. Just waitin’ on you and Engineer Lindholm.”

“Cut him some slack, Lena. Those short little legs…” Jack started with a grin as he heard Torb’s aggrieved growl in his ear.

“Are still long enough to kick yer ass, ya little shit.” He flipped Jack off while he wheeled a trolley full of equipment onto the Sledge.  “At the very least, _kneecap_ yer ass.”

“Duly noted, Torb.” Jack helped him get the gear up the ramp. “This is a lot of stuff, by  the way.”

“They may be havin’ comms difficulty. Considering how there isn’t exactly a Radio Shack at the point, I figured best to be havin’ the miniforge and fabricators. If they’re not too good fer homemade.” Torb snorted derisively as he strapped in the gear.

“Lena, time to destination?” Jack called up the narrow corridor to the Sledge’s cockpit.

“Four hours in these conditions. Better than a week of overland travel but I’m still not crazy about having to fight these winds.” She shouted back.

“Make it so. We’ll review in the meantime.” Jack buckled in, glancing around the crew area at his team. Engineer Torbjorn Lindholm. Doctor Angela Ziegler. Paramedic and Counsellor Lucio Correia dos Santos.  Jack had flown close to thirty rescue missions with them, and as the inner doors to the hangar closed behind him, and the outer ones began to grind through the ice, he kept his tone easy and his face neutral. There was no reason to believe this was any different.

“Luc, you want to run the projector?” He asked and Dos Santos grinned at him.  The Sledge’s engines roared to life then, louder than the winds and all of them fell silent as Lena guided it into the air, the craft straining against the storm 

“This is your pilot speaking, loves, we’ve achieved the best cruising altitude we are gonna manage. You are not free to walk around the cabin, though, because I can’t guarantee we’re not gonna crash.” 

“Good talk, Tracer.” Jack sighed. “Luc?”

 “Aw, you know how to win over the AV nerd.” Lucio laughed back. “Ok, so the Vault. Colonel Song’s uploaded the schematics- which are “I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you” levels of classified. Her running theory is that they’re suffering from technical trouble due to the very abnormal blizzard that’s settled over the whole region. The Vault and it’s staff are considered the highest priority in Antarctica right now, which is why we all are on our way into the frozen hellscape to investigate.”

“Lucio, this is your third year here, why do you keep coming back if you think it is a hellscape?” Angela asked without looking up from her own screen.

“Because the phrase ‘frozen hellscape’ is a fucking delight to say, Angie.” Lucio said pleasantly. “Now, staff is headed up by Doctor Harry Winston and Doctor Zhou Meiling. Their chief engineer is Olivia Colomar, and head of security is Captain Fareeha Amari.  Chief Medical officer, Doctor Moira O'Deorain. There are fourteen researchers and ten security agents under them, along with twenty five support staff. Three UN security advisors were sent recently as well. Commander Reinhardt Wilhelm, Colonel Ana Amari, definitely a relation to the Captain I think, and… oh.” He trailed off and looked intently at Jack.

“Yeah. I know, Luc. It’s ok.” Jack said gently and the other man sighed.

 “...And Major Gabriel Reyes. The current former Mister Commander Morrison.”

“We’re not divorced, we’re just taking a break because we’ve spent like one week together over the last three years.” Jack tugged on his seatbelt. “He’s a good guy.”

“Well, we’ve got words for him when we get there.” Angela said primly, still without looking up. “He made you cry.”

 “I didn’t..” Jack blustered as the Sledge shook. “Ok, look, no more discussing my personal life. We get in, we ascertain if everyone is ok, we follow security protocol and we’re home in time for tacos.”


	3. THREE

_LOS ANGELES, CA, USA; DECEMBER 24 2075. 11:00 PM, Another day in paradise except for the 405._

“So. I’ve decided.”  Jack yawned hugely and grinned at the sensation of Gabriel’s hand running down his spine. They had a potted palm on the balcony draped in twinkling lights, and a few glittering bits of tinsel danced in the evening breeze.

“Mm?” Gabe hummed against the back of his neck, curling closer. A pine scented candle burned on the nightstand, and he smelled like Florida Water and good cigars. Jack stretched and arched back against him, Gabriel’s hands sliding across his hips to trace the patterns of scars and gilded hair down the lines of Jack’s belly.

 “I’m going to tell Colonel Song I won’t be renewing my contract with Ecopoint for the next research season. Lucio’s fantastic, he deserves to move up and I… “ Jack rolled over, hooking his leg around Gabriel’s. “I want to see my husband for more than a few days out of the year.” 

“I thought you loved playing Rescue Rangers in the frozen asshole of the world.” Gabriel’s tone was light, his face buried in the crook of Jack’s neck, but his shoulders tensed. 

“I do, but…” Gently Jack pushed him back, catching Gabriel’s dark gaze with his own. “Gabe, what..?" 

“I have an assignment coming up. One that I can’t miss out on.” Gabriel sighed, running his hand along Jack’s jaw. 

“That’s fine. I can play homemaker at the posting. I’ll go anywhere in the world for you.” Jack quirked a little smile that felt strange and weak in the face of Gabriel’s expression. “Gabe.” 

“Baby, I know. I know you would. But I. I don’t want you to come.” Gabriel sat up. “We’ve been apart so long, I feel like…” He paused, jaw twitching. “I feel like this is an affair, and our jobs are the real world, y’know?“ 

“Please just tell me you’re not sleeping with someone else on your team.” Jack stared up at the ceiling. “Look me in the eye and tell me that.”

“I’m not. But I don’t think I’m ready for us to do this,” He swept a hand across the apartment before them. Uniforms hanging in the closet, wineglasses on the table near the remains of dinner. The drum and bass thumping from an apartment a few floors down, wafting in through the windows with the sounds of the city at night. “All the time.  I… I feel like we barely know each other sometimes.” His eyes looked everywhere but at Jack.

“You want out.” Jack worried the edge of his wedding ring with his thumbnail, watching Gabriel’s darting expression.

“No. No. I just. I need some more time.”

“We’ve been married for three years and spent most of that on opposite ends of the planet, Gabriel.” Jack pushed himself out of bed, and padded over to his clothes. “Do what you want, man. Merry fucking Christmas.”

“Jackie.” Gabriel said, but didn’t try to close the distance between them. Jack could feel his stare as he pulled on his shirt. “Once this assignment is done, I’m all yours. You could just stay here in L.A. while I do this. Then we can take a nice long trip somewhere warm and crisis free. Get to know ea…”

“You said that after Sudan. And after Beijing. And that thing in Panama.” Jack tugged his jeans up and shot Gabriel a sharp blue glare. “It’s cool, ok? Priorities in life change. We were just.. infatuated with each other.

“I love you.” Gabriel said softly.

“I love you too. But maybe that’s not always enough, Gabe.”

 

_ON APPROACH TO THE VAULT/SOVETSKAYA 2, ANTARCTICA; JUNE 14, 2076. 14:16, External temperature: -80 degrees C and dropping._

“Jack.” He blinked awake at Lucio’s voice, and a hand on his shoulder. “You. You were snoring.”

Jack wiped at something damp on his cheek and sat up, back cracking. He pushed back his scruff of slowly-greying blonde and stretched. “Time to target?”

“We should be in sight.” Lena’s voice piped over the comms. “But all I’m getting is that auto ping from their systems. No reply for vectors an’ I don’t have a visual through all this snow.”

“Can you bring us in on instruments?” Jack asked, making his way through the narrow passageway to the Sledge’s cockpit. Beyond the windscreen was a haze of snow and darkness.

“I mean, technically, yes?” She shot him a look out of the corner of her eye. “But I don’t bloody well prefer to.”

Jack tapped the radio as he sat himself in the copilot’s seat. “Rescue 76 to Ecopoint. We do not have audio or visual contact with Sovetskaya 2.”

“We’re still receiving the auto ping as well, Commander.” Hana sounded exhausted, and Jack wondered who she’d been arguing with. “I’ve been able to gain access to a Chinese weather satellite, feeding data to the Sledge’s navigation systems now. Do your best. We need to confirm what’s going on there.”

“Copy that, Colonel.” Jack keyed off the radio. “Is it enough?” He glanced over at Lena.

“We should be practically on top of it, I’ll start a vertical descent.” She grumbled, fighting the stick to maintain control as the Sledge began to drop. “Hopefully we don’t come down right on top’a their roof. Can’t imagine they’d be too cheerful about that.”

Winds buffeted the Sledge as it kicked up a storm of it’s own making in the landing. In the craft’s lights, the dark shapes of a sprawling facility took on an abstract sort of life. “Ok people, suit up.” Jack shouted back. 

Lena started to slide out of her seat and Jack placed a hand on her shoulder. “Not you. Keep the engines hot. If we have to move out of here in a hurry, I don’t want us to have to wait for the car to warm up.” He laughed, but her expression mirrored the concern he knew his own had. 

“Copy that, sir. I’ll keep the motor running.” She gave him a little salute. 

In the crew cabin, everyone was already fitting on their cold suits- bulky white, the faint glowing blue of the warming tubes circling out from the environmental units on the back. The faceplates’ HUDs flashed local temperature information and highlighted the team members as Jack’s pressurized in place.

“I miss my dreads.” Lucio sighed as he fit his hood into place. “Torb, promise me you’ll design something for people with actual hair when you get a budget again?”

“I had to shave me beard, son, so the mask would seal.” Torbjorn lamented, shouldering one of the miniforges. “I loved that beard. “

“And people have the nerve to tell me women are vain.” Angela sighed, fastening on her own backpack. The winglike appendages did more than just create a temperature field, they acted as a veritable beacon in the gloom, casting a warm glow around them as they stepped into the Sledge’s airlock.

“Inner doors sealed, Lena, you can let us out.” Jack tapped his Link and the craft’s outer door ground open, the ice already forming on the hull. “I’ve got sensor confirmation from the schematics of where the main entrance is from here.” He felt Lucio hook a line into his belt, and glanced back to ensure Angela and Torb had hooked in as well. “Let’s go people, thirty meters.”

“Suits are working great, Torb.” Lucio said as they trudged towards the facility. “Warm and dry. You are a damn genius, my man.” 

“So nice when someone appreciates me.” Torbjorn snorted from the back of the line. “Take notes, Morrison.”

“Please. You know I appreciate you, Torb. You’re the angry wind beneath my wings.” Jack laughed, grateful the others couldn’t see his face.

While Torbjorn railed on whether or not that had been a height joke, Jack let the scanners in the mask try and sort out the mass of angular black shapes before them. There was the faint glint of glass and metal in the Sledge’s lights, but there was nothing indicating the station in front of them was active. Not even the growl of what the schematics showed to be four massive generator stations shook the freezing air.

His concerns hadn’t disappated by the time they found the door. The lock indicators were completely dark, and the massive bulkhead was sealed tight. He tapped the keypad, and it flashed a dull red, “LOCKDOWN OMEGA”, then fell dark again. “Colonel Song, this is Rescue 76, do you copy?” 

“Copy, Jack. Status?”

“We’re at Sovetskaya 2. It’s sealed. Something called Lockdown Omega” Jack absently chewed on his lower lip, as the blue outlines of his team moved into the corners of his vision.

There was silence for a moment, but before he could repeat, Hana was back in his ear. “According to information, Lockdown Omega is only automatically initiated in.. in a planetary extinction event.” She said tightly. “Jack, if the system in there malfunctioned, everyone in there could be trapped – essentially forever.”

“Extinction… Ok. We’ll worry about that later. Torb, we’re gonna need to breach.” Jack sighed. “Luc, get us a defensive field. Lena, have you had any luck getting through to anyone in the base?”

“Negative, sir. Just that goddamn ping.” She said.

“Right, ok, safeties off but fingers off the trigger. We don’t know what’s going on in there. Torb, on your count.”

The explosion was muffled by the storm, the fireball only a brief flare in the crushing storm.

 Carefully the team made their way into the outer corridor, headlamps sweeping the darkness. Brightly painted murals coated in rime lined the walls, and Jack glanced at the temperature in the corner of his HUD.

- _89_.

“It’s getting colder in here, that’s not good.” He started, but Angela’s startled gasp cut him short. “Angie?” 

She knelt beside something Jack initially took for a hunk of ice.  “This is one of the support staff. He was a cook.” She said, her Link scanning the identifier chip in the man’s bracelet. Very gently she tapped his hand, and it cracked. “Cells burst from the cold, he froze to death as his blood crystalized within him. 

“According to the schematics, the main control center is down through this hallway and through the main hall. If something happened to the environmental controls, that would be the safest spot to try and keep everyone warm.” Jack forced himself to keep a level tone. “Come on, we keep moving. Log him, and we’ll make sure to bring him back on the way out.” 

“I swear to god I think I saw something move.” Lucio blurted out, light sweeping ahead of them. “Just for a second.”

“If I die of a heart attack, you’re gonna have ta’ take care’a my eight kids, Dos Santos.” Torbjorn lightly slugged him. “Stop fuckin’ around.

“All of you, stay on point. If someone’s moving around in here, they’re probably trying to make sure we’re not here to make the problem worse.” Jack grumbled, moving ahead.

“I would surely like to know how this could be worse.” Lucio sighed.

“Great. _Now_ we’re fucked.” Torbjorn muttered.


	4. FOUR

_THE VAULT, ANTARCTICA; JUNE 14, 2076. 15:12, Internal Suit Temperature: 18 degrees C. External suit temperature: -90 degrees C and dropping._

Five more bodies as they made their way into the center of the facility. Angie knelt by the most recent, headlamp bobbing in the darkness as she examined the body. “Same as the others. Frozen quickly and deeply enough to cause massive damage on a cellular level.”

“And like the others, headed away from the control center.” Torbjorn added. “Jack…”

 “Yeah, I noticed.” He said absently, his own light sweeping along the wall. “The ice is in strips… no. Gouges. Lena, you getting all our feeds still?” Corridors, all as dark as the one they were in branched off, the HUDs showing tunnels to living quarters and archives. In his vision, the team was all highlighted in a soft blue, the only life against the static grey of the freezing environment. 

“…s… storm’s picking up, sir.” Tracer’s voice crackled over the comms. “St… long… stuckkk….”

“Understood. We’re just outside the control center. If we don’t find any survivors, we’ll head back out and get out of here.” Jack said, running a thumb along the ice.  Something glinted down a side corridor and he froze, fist snapping up to silence the soft chatter of his team, and they all held still.

No other heat signature showed on the HUD, just the grainy black of the mask’s cameras as his headlamp shone into the gloom. “There’s ice on everything in here. Must’ve caught a reflection.” He said after a moment, and he knew it was to convince himself more than anything.

“This is the creepiest place I’ve ever been in.” Lucio turned a heavier heat scanner down the corridor and shook his head. “Nothing, sir. I guess we’re all just…”

Jack heard the scrape, unlike the rubbery tread of their boots, a second before he saw the flash of white in his head lamp. He twisted, grabbing Lucio and shoving him backwards as something hit him hard. Still no heat signs showing in his scanners but red lights crowded his vision and sharp pain spread across his chest. 

_Internal Suit Temperature: 10 degrees C and dropping._

The spray of heating fluid  spattered against the visor as he staggered, trying to block off the sheared hose with one hand and releasing his weapon with the other. He felt like he’d been hit by a car.

It was huge, a blur of white moving through the wildly bobbing spots of light from their headlamps, the crack of Torbjorn and Mercy’s weapons oddly muffled. Jack one handed his gun and it kicked hard in his grip, while the suit alarms screamed. Three shots, and one squarely in what Jack prayed was a head.

His heart hammered as he sunk to his knees, Torbjorn immediately on him, trying to patch the breach. The suit was stabilized at 9 C, and he cursed. There was a salty, acrid smell in his mask - like frozen seawater, and the warm, wet seep of the heating fluid sinking through the inner layers of his suit. The gun hissed red hot on the frozen floor and he watched Angie train her shaking weapon on the creature as Lucio went to investigate.

“It’s the tubing. Curse me, I should have reinforced it better.” Torbjorn cursed as well, the fabricator printing a coupling for him to fuse onto the torn section.

“Well, to be fair, I don’t think we ever needed to yeti-proof anything.” Lucio muttered.

Jack shivered, the adrenaline fading, and picked himself up. “Come again?”

“Big, hairy and claws like steak knives.” The medic said, holding up one massive hand dripping with the liquid from Jack's suit. “No pulse. Nothing.”

“It didn’t show on the heat scanners.” Jack said thickly, trying to will the internal temperature back up in the suit as Torbjorn fussed.

“Wait. Lucio, look.” Angie’s headlamp turned to the creature’s wrist. “An id bracelet.”

The data flashed on their Links as Lucio scanned it. “Holy shit.”

_Doctor Harold Winston._

“I met Doctor Winston once.” Angela said slowly. “This isn’t.. this.. this isn’t..”

“Deep, slow breaths. Take a sample.” Jack said. “Torb, get the control center open, see if there’s any power anywhere in the facility. Lena, you get this footage?”

 There was a hiss of static in reply.

Jack gritted his teeth as he stood. “Ok, we’re out of here. Torb?”

“I’m in.” The engineer’s voice was quiet in his ear. “Jack, you gotta get in here.”

The rest of the team exchanged a look, and Angie helped him to the door.  Their lights caught a sparkling column of ice  in the center of the ruined room. Shattered monitors were scattered across the floor In a tangle of torn cables and broken glass. “I found Doctor Zhou.” He said, jerking a thumb at the ice.

“She’s frozen perfectly in it, not like the bodies we found.” Angie said, tapping furiously on her Link. Doctor Zhou was tiny and gently plump, her face frozen in a gentle smile of surprise.

“It’s creepy. Like her eyes are following us.” Lucio circled her warily before helping Torbjorn right a semi-intact workstation.

Angela shook her head and turned her attention to Jack, running her hands over his damaged ribs. “I want out of here, Jack. This place gets worse with every moment. Maybe the others, they got out and headed to Vostok or Concordia.”

“We would have heard something from the other stations.” Jack hissed as she found the damage under his suit. The 9 C still hovered in the corner of his vision. Not cold enough to be dangerous, but chilly. And the temperature had dropped so quickly, that another blow to the environmental system could drop it to potentially fatal levels in moments.

“Jack, it wouldn’t matter if we had power. Wires were ripped right out of the walls, the whole system. Probably thanks to doctor Winston out there.” Torbjorn sighed.

“Ok, let’s get out of here. This is insane. Pack up and move out.” Jack growled, gently moving Angela’s hand from his side. “Come on and…” He froze. “Wait. Where’s Zhou?”

The column of ice was empty.

“FUCK, MOVE.” Jack spat, shepherding the team to the door. “GO!”

Laughter echoed through the darkness as they scrambled towards the entrance, dodging the bodies of the staff that had tried to flee towards the certain death of the storm. “Oh. Oh no.” Angela whispered as they came to a halt past the frozen murals.

There was only a featureless wall of ice.

Jack ratcheted the gun, and the shots rang out, still muffled in the frozen dark, bullets pinging off the ice as surely as if it was steel.

 “We’re trapped.” Angie said.

 “TRACER, DO YOU COPY?” Jack shouted into his Link, but there was only more of the static. “We’re not trapped. We’ve got the schematics. We head further in, get the power back up, the the comms up. There’s another comm station at generator one. That’s our mission now, we find a way out.”

 

_External suit temperature -95 C and dropping._


	5. FIVE

  _THE VAULT, ANTARCTICA; JUNE 14, 2076. 15:47, Internal Suit Temperature: 9 degrees C. External suit temperature: -96 degrees C and dropping._

“Even with the schematics, this place is a fucking maze.” Lucio muttered as they swept their headlamps over what the HUD maps indicated was a dining area. More bodies, frozen and glittering in the passing light.

“Whatever happened here, I think it caught these guys first. The others were trying to escape but…” Jack passed the scanner over each of them, half-praying Gabriel was among them.

Angie’s hand rested lightly on his arm. “Jack, he’s not here. “ She said softly while Lucio and Torbjorn forced open a door.

“I don’t know whether or not that’s a good thing at this point.” He squeezed her hand. “What’ve you guys got?”

“Service corridor, should lead to medical, then through the garages to Power One.” Torb powered up the miniforge.  “We take the main corridors, we’re sitting ducks.”

Jack glanced through the route. “Solid. If we can get the garage open, we might not need the power station. What’re you making?” He asked, headlamp scanning across the room. It was quiet except for the rhythmic clunk of the forge echoing on the icy walls, blindly printing away.  He took the moment, his mouth finding the tube in the corner of his mask, for hydration and energy gel. It tasted exactly like green jello and celery.

“It’s so loud.” Angela rocked on her feet, her voice startling him off the taste of the gel.  “They’ll hear us.”

“Deep breath. I’m afraid they might already know where we are.” Jack shook his head. “Torb, answers?”

“They don’t show up on our heat scanners.” Lucio pulled the little round device from the forge and balanced it on his shoulder while Torbjorn plugged it into his suit power. “So I’m thinkin’ maybe we try some old school sonar.”

“Good job, Luc. Can you share it on the Links?” Jack’s ribs twinged. _Internal Suit Temperature: 8.5 C_ (Shit).

Two green lights winked on the ball and it gave a soft chirp as Lucio turned to them. “Sorry, boss, this is pretty much analog. The mini can’t do anything _too_ fancy.” 

“You be nice to my baby.” Torbjorn snorted, shouldering the forge.  “Anything down the corridor?”

Lucio turned down to the service tunnel. The orb was silent. “We’re good.” He ratcheted his gun. “We move out?”

“Stay close, Luc on point. I’ll cover the back. Weapons hot. First priority is seeing if we can get the garage open, get back to the sledge. If not, then Power One.” Jack patted Torbjorn on the shoulder.  At the front, Lucio scanned back and forth, the little orb silent.

“Could it be just Zhou and Winston were runnin’ amok in here?” Lucio asked, stopping to turn back. The orb chirped as he turned. Softly at first, then louder, more insistent.

“Luc?” Jack hissed as Lucio slowly turned to the wall. “LUCIO.”

The chirping was louder and faster and louder and faster.

“LUCIO!!”

The wall shook and shattered and a ghastly blue light flooded the corridor.

_External Suit Temperature: -100 C._

The sonar orb was shrieking and a hand as big as Jack’s entire head palmed his face and bounced him against the floor.  His gun clattered against the concrete as the sharp staccato of Angie and Lucio’s guns rang out.

Another sound, another high-pitched noise and Jack blind-handed for his rifle. A flurry of feathers blurred past and he shot on instinct.  There was a scream, and he didn’t know who it was. The fists were beating him again, slamming Jack against the hard floor.

He thought tasted blood in the back of his throat, blood and celery.

(Their first Christmas, he’d made his mother’s green gelatin for Gabriel. Jello and celery and nuts and they laughed about how awful it was and Gabriel ate four servings anyways. The rings were still new on their fingers, the L.A. traffic distant out their window. They drank too much and missed their flights.)

_(Jackie, get up.)_

“JACK!!”

Jack rolled, dodging another blow, and tore the heating hose from his chest. The heating fluid sprayed wildly as he jammed it against the creature with a roar.

There was a hiss, then a howl. Three more shots, Angela’s gun, and a splatter of frozen blue splashed against his mask. He thought he could feel the cold through the heavy polymers.

_Internal Suit Temperature: 7 C_

A heavy shape fell next to him and Jack scrambled backwards until he felt th wall at his back. “TEAM SOUND OFF!” He wheezed, looking at the red light flashing in the corner of his vision. “SOUND OFF NOW!!”

“I’m good, I’m good.” Lucio gasped.

“I’m ok, Jack.” Angie said, voice trembling.

“Torb?” Jack wiped the blue goo from his visor, one hand clamped over the newly torn hose. “Torbjorn??” He looked around wildly, the miniforge abandoned further down, the straps torn off. “TORB!?”

“it’s ok, it’s ok it’s ok.” Lucio chanted, breathless. “I’m still showing him on the Link.” He tapped at his comm. “Torb, come on man, talk to us, Torb?”

The blue indicator was flashing, the engineer’s vital signs fluctuating.

“Torb, come on, buddy.”

Silence, then from somewhere in the darkness, a scream.

On the Link, Torbjorn’s indicator went dark.

Jack’s heart was hammering in his ears, and he snapped his fist back for a  punch as something entered the corner of his vision. “JACK STOP.” Angie shouted, patching his hose with a roll of tape from her bag. “Jack, Torbjorn is…”

“I know, I know.” He grunted, absently rubbing his side. “What the fuck is that?”

“UN power armour, I think it’s ..” Lucio’s voice was strained. “It’s Colonel Whilhem from the UN team.” He prodded at the faintly glowing skin of the man’s face, at the hole where one eye had been. 

“Jack, what do we do?” Angela asked, helping him to his feet. Lucio shouldered the forge, hands spasming on the broken straps.

 “Medical is on the way. We can use the forge, power up the diagnostics. We need to figure out what the fuck this is so we can tell Colonel Song who to send in to bomb this place into oblivion.” Jack bit down on his lip hard, but it only felt cold.


	6. SIX

_THE VAULT, ANTARCTICA; JUNE 14, 2076. 16:15, Internal Suit Temperature: 6 degrees C. External suit temperature: -110  degrees C and dropping._

No one said anything as he braced his shoulder against the access door to the medical wing, hand twitching on the stock of his rifle.

The ice in his guts had far less to do with the accusing numbers flashing in the corner of his vision than it had to do with the way the screaming still echoed in his ears. Torbjorn’s and the unearthly shriek that had followed it.

One good shove, Lucio’s weapon trained over his shoulder and Angie watching their backs. He was expecting more darkness, more cold, more unrelenting horror.

_External suit temperature 35 degrees C._

Red lights flooded the corridor, strings of infrared bulbs, emergency heaters, electric blankets, it blinded the visor for a moment and Jack froze. He stopped so short, barking a noise of disbelief, that Lucio and Angie crashed into his back. “What the fuck?”

“A new circle of hell.” Angie blurted out, helping Lucio shut the heavy door behind them as fast as they could.

 _Internal Suit Temperature: 6 degrees C._ Before Jack could say anything, Lucio pulled off his mask. “Bakin’ to death in my suit, man.” The medic dragged a glove through his close cropped hair and Jack saw his eyes widen. “COMPANY.”

Beyond the closed doors to the medical unit, a lanky scarecrow in scant undergarments pressed up against the glass. Red hair plastered to her narrow, sweating face, and her eyes were wide. “FECK!” Her shout was muffled through the glass. “That’s why they haven’t been givin me any problems- new toys t’play with!”

“We’re from Ecopoint- you’re O’Deorain, right? WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?” Jack roared, slamming one fist againt the heavy glass.

Her eyes narrowed, giving Jack and the others a once over, and her thin lips curled into an ugly smile. “Fuck it all, I’ll tell you what I know, then, and you get me the fuck out of here, deal?” She slapped the pad on the door and it slid open with a blast of infernal heat. “They don’t like the heat, they don’t.  Medical’s got its own generators, and the fuckers haven’t been able to cut me off just yet, but it’s a matter of time, just a matter of time.”

Angela pulled off her mask and unfastened the neck of her environmental suit. “It’s boiling in here.”

Jack shifted on his feet, looking at the numbers in the HUD. “Talk.”

Doctor O’Deorain smirked at him. “The heat makes them sick, drops them. I got Oliva when she shoved ice spikes into the brains of my team, made them her puppets. Blasted her with a fuckin’ hairdryer, if you can believe it. Knocked her off balance just enough for me to finish the slag.” She jerked a thumb at a table where blue-skinned bits of what Jack assumed was the station’s former chief engineer lay strewn about.

“Is this biological?” Angie asked, scowling at the gore as she pulled her mask back on.

O’Deorain snorted. “It’s bio-mechanical, near as I can tell. Something alien perhaps, or a gift left by a dead civilization buried under kilometres of ice.” She poured herself a glass of water and leaned against her slovenly desk. “The problem with being a place where all the world wants to hide their treasures is that material goods take up space…” Her eyes drifted back to Jack, scanning his name badge. “Commander Morrison. They did a deep core drill to make sure we could expand downward, and they… hit something. Mei started studying it.”

The doctor rubbed her face. “Compromised for months, I think, looking back.  I think it finally spread, just slowly enough through her system that when she blew the power grid,  she was completely under it’s control.”

“We found her in a cocoon of ice.” Lucio leaned over a screen, reading. “She walled us in. Winston’d been transformed into a yeti, and that Wilhelm guy was like an ice golem in power armour.”

“You said bio-mechanical.” Jack added.

“I think it’s networked, and it’s prototyping, trying to find the most efficient expression of itself. Every mutation happened within hours, since Mei shut the Vault down. People either died, or became… well, you’ve seen.” She waved a bony hand at them.

“No way to stop it?” Angela joined Lucio, flipping through the data. “You must have figured out something.”

“Yeah, kill it with fire. “

“And Major Reyes? What about him?” Jack said a little too quickly.

“Oh, love, you have no idea.” She slid off her desk, right into Jack’s personal space. “You haven’t taken off your mask like your friends, Morrison.” She drew the name out with a sneer. “You feeling ok, darling?” 

“I’m fine.” Jack pushed her back. “Copy what data you can and put on something warmer. We’re heading to the garage and getting the hell out of here, Doctor.”

_Internal Suit Temperature: 5 degrees C._

“Hey!” Lucio’s shout drew Jack’s attention away from the doctor’s sharp gaze. “there’s a working connection to the outside.”

“They tore off the antennas outside. I can’t reach any of the other stations, I bloody tried.” O’Deorain muttered as she pulled on a coldsuit.

“No, but it’s enough to get the Sledge, I think. Lena, you hear me?” He keyed the mic.

“OH MY GOD I’VE BEEN TRYING T’REACH YOU LOT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Lena shouted back. “The weather is getting worse out here and I keep losing contact with base, not to mention Concordia and Vostok and…” She babbled, barely taking a breath.

“Tracer, do you see the garage on the schematics?” Jack said gently. “Where is it in relation to the Sledge’s position?”

“Right, right. It’s about a quarter kilometer ahead an’ north, just a bit. I can see the sealed doors through the cameras. Too much stuff in the way for me to get too much closer, though, boss.” She sounded calmer.

“That’s fine, listen, as soon as we get those doors open, I need you to shoot every flare we have onboard in there. We’re gonna be heading out a dead run. If all of us don’t get on, you go with whomever you have, understand me?”

“Jack, what’s happened in there?” She asked, and he could almost hear her expression in the tone of her voice.

“I’ll fill you in when we’re out. Keep the motor running, Tracer. We’re heading to the garage now.” Jack shouldered his gun. “Luc, any way for us to bring any of this stuff with us?” He gestured at the heaters.

“I could maybe run a couple off of the…” He paused, fingers running over the forge’s case. “Off Torb’s forge. You didn’t tell Lena.”

“She needs to stay alert,  I’ll tell her when we’re safe.” Jack shook his head. “O’Deorain, they can see heat, can’t they.”

“That they can. But too much, like this? I think it blinds them. There’s flamethrowers for clearing the runway in the garage, if we can get to them.” She finished zipping up and yanked out a portable drive. “My suggestion is to bomb this place from orbit. Fuck the Mona Lisa”

There was the dull, thudding sound of the forge working and Jack crouched beside Lucio. “What’dya got?”

“Instead of taking the heaters with us, I got an idea. Torb had some basic printed weapons in the database. I just scanned some of the heatlamps, and I think this is making basically an infrared beam weapon. Like a French fry light, but with focus.”

“He’d be proud. Good job.” Jack squeezed Lucio’s shoulder, and got up to find Angie beside him. “What’s up?”

“Are you ok?” She asked, stuffing medical supplies in her bag. “I know your ribs are broken, and your suit’s taken a beating, Jack. Before we move out, at least let me do a quick scan here and see if anything else is…”

“I’m fine. Ribs are holding and suit’s still intact. I think my HUD’s busted, but it’s not an issue. I don’t want us to lose any more time. They’ve probably figured out where we are by now and we have to expect a fight.”

“And Gabriel?” She refastened her suit collar.

“Might not be Gabriel anymore, if what we’ve seen is across the board. Is it wrong that I don’t know what I want more? That he’s frozen solid and dead or he’s alive but transformed into an ice monstrosity?”

“I hope for all our sakes it’s the former.” Angela patted his arm.

_Internal Suit Temperature: 4 degrees C._


	7. SEVEN

_THE VAULT, ANTARCTICA; JUNE 14, 2076. 16:45, Internal Suit Temperature: 4 degrees C. External suit temperature: -115  degrees C and dropping._

It was colder than any place on earth had a right to be, Jack thought as they crept through the service tunnel over the medical wing. More than once, he heard Angie hiss at O’Deorain to be silent, Lucio’s sonar blissfully quiet ahead of them.

The heat gun gave off a dull red glow in the HUD, while warning numbers flashed glaring orange in the corner of his vision, around the blue shapes of his team. It had to be broken, he reminded himself. Colonel Wilhelm had dribbled his skull like a pro against the concrete.

It had to be broken because he was sweating, and it tasted like frozen salt as it trickled down his lips. Jack squeezed his eyes shut, and all he could see was Doctor O’Deorain’s leer behind his eyes.

He heard the laughter before Lucio’s sensor caught it and hissed a warning as the little device chirped softly.

Doctor Zhou’s giggles echoing through the frozen corridors below sounded like icicles shattering. Angela clutched her medical bag to her chest and he watched as O’Deorain’s hands twitched frantically.

(Don’t look up don’t look up don’t look up) He tightened his grip on the rifle. Somewhere in the darkness, the shriek of an owl rippled through the cold. The same shriek that had taken Torbjorn.

Then silence. “We should be over the garage.” Jack whispered, feeling for the door. “Whatever you have to do to get the doors open, you do it. Lena should be ready with the Sledge. You get to it, you get out of here.”

“You sound like you’re not coming with us.” He couldn’t see Luc’s face behind the protective mask, but he knew the tone.

“I’m the one with the heavy weaponry.” Jack snorted as the two of them gently slid the panel open. “If I have to make a sacrifice play so you guys can get to safety and get Song to bomb the shit out of this place, I’ll do it.”

“You think he’s dead here, don’t you.” Angela said softly. It wasn’t a question.

“If he’s not, then you need me to cover the rear even more. He’s a smart soldier. He’s good at what he does.” Jack bit the words off, feeling more of the salty, cold sweat in his mouth. “We can’t fight him. We got lucky with the others.”

“You’ll need to be ready to put a bullet in his face, then darling, because I’m sure he’s not dead.” O’Deorain hissed. “Less talk, more moving – I want out of this fucking icebox.”

Jack motioned them to stay, and slung the rifle over his shoulder, dropping down onto a ledge. It was silent, frost coating the snowcats and racks of untouched equipment. In the distance, Zhou’s laughter echoed, but it was far away.

He stepped over the frozen corpse of a maintence tech, his glittering hand stuck on the handle of the nearest snowcat. “Clear.” Jack whispered into the Link. “Luc, see if you can use the forge to get power to the door lifts. If not, Torb’s build a bomb should blow a hole in it.” There was a dull hiss of air as Jack opened the pressurized cabin to the vehicle.

“I don’t like this.” O’Deorain hissed, shoving Angie to the side. Her environmental suit was bulky, poufy and a fluffy hood haloed her masked face like an irritable mongoose.

“Maybe we got lucky for the first time today.” Luc said, prying off the panel by the door. “ There was another hiss of air and Jack’s fist snapped up in warning just as the door began to grind open. It was so loud, the clanking of the mechanical gears, the roar of the storm as it stabbed through the widening gap.

If the infected didn’t know they were there, they did now.

The storm brought with it a flood of light from the Sledge. He heard the others make a sound of relief, but Jack wheeled around, trying to find the source of the other sound.

“Motor…nning an’ the coffee’s h…ves.” Lena’s voice cracled through the link and he swept the beam of his headlamp up towards the ceiling.

Ice sparkled on the rafters.

Behind him, the team and O’Deorain started to move towards the door, moments drawing out in glacial time.

The ice moved.

“GET DOWN! DOWN!!” Jack roared, blindly grabbing whomever was nearest to him and dragging them beside the snowcat. Lucio dove for cover by the door, the white of his suit disappearing into the stark shadows cast by the Sledge’s lights. “LENA THE FLARES, THE FLARES!!”

Trails of red skittered across the floor of the garage, and he caught sight of the frozen figure flashing past them in the snow-flickered lights from the Sledge and the glow of the flares. Power armour like Wilhelm’s.

Security Chief Amari, he realized in horror, the brittle sound of weaponry ratcheting into place as the baffled rockets shot her forward like a comet.

( _Gabriel could never talk about what he did for the UN. But once, once he let slip how they’d trapped a group stealing refugee supplies. How they’d lured them in, thinking it was safe.)_

(It’s a trap.) “LENA GET OUT OF HERE!” He screamed into the Link.

The explosion was almost comically tiny at first, in the face of the howling winds, but then the roiling ball of orange light blew outwards, bits of the former Security Chief flung backwards as the dying Sledge tore through the nearby outbuildings and unmoored the snowcat from its place, frozen to the garage floor.

Jack curled around the body next to him as they tumbled backwards, only a high-pitched whine of static through the link where Lena’s comms had been.

“FUCK!!” O’Deorain squawked from the vicinity of his chest, and Jack couldn’t understand why the crackling fire outside the garage kept making a sharp, rhythmic clapping sound. His head hurt and his mouth tasted like a frozen ocean.

“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK” O’Deorain chanted over and over again, tearing away from Jack and scrambling backwards.

Dumbly, Jack turned, blinking at the figure stepping from the shadows, slowly clapping as it moved forward. Flickering blue mist drifted out from the tatters of his heavy coat. The same faint blue glow that had accompanied the others. The figure stepped on one of the flares, grinding it out under a heavy boot, and Jack followed the line of his rime-covered leg to the hooded face.

His heart stopped. In the distance, he thought he heard Angela screaming at him, heard O’Deorain cursing. The door chain clunked and ground, the sound hollow in the cavernous garage as the storm blew in snow and burning ash in equal measures.

The man pulled his hood back, and he regarded the team with a dead, cold glare. Warm brown skin was luminescent blue, the neat beard Gabriel had always so carefully tended frozen plastered to his face.

“Tenacious.” The thing that had been Gabriel Reyes said, voice like an iceberg calving. Behind him, the birdlike creature that had taken Torbjorn poked absently at the shattered remains of Chief Amari. He could see it wore a tattered uniform, the Egyptian flag still visible on one arm while her diamond feathers twinkled in the shuddering orange light. “I don’t know who you all are, but we’re not done here yet. We’re still growing.”

There was more movement in the shadows. Zhou. Then another, and Jack heard a strangled sound from Lucio over the Link. 

The figure was small, stout. It staggered like a broken thing out of the darkness and Jack felt his heart stop.

 _Torbjorn_. Part of his face was missing, ice crusting over where his eye had been, a false beard of frozen blood clinging to his jaw as he shambled forward 

He walked past Jack to O’Deorain and snatched her up by the hood. “You shouldn’t have cut up Olivia, Doctor. She was just trying to make you understand.”

_InTe## * &@@** 2 C. Ex$@&@)@ -115_

 Jack’s faceplate was shattered, the HUD a jittering, unreadable mess in the corner of his vision. Jaw twitching, he pried it off, feeling the air prickle against his face. “Gabriel. Stop.” He wheezed, fingers spasming against the rifle's trigger. Under his heavy gloves, the wedding ring burned against his skin.

There was an ugly sound, bone and meat, wet and brittle all at once as Gabriel flung the Doctor across the garage, and he turned, icy features twitching in faint confusion.

“Jack?”


	8. Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, between the previous chapter and this one, reaper76week happened, my cat died and life has generally been quite... challengng.
> 
> thanks for hanging around.

_GENEVA, SWITZERLAND ; AUGUST 08 2072. 01:06, a symposium on international disaster management. More specifically, a closet at a symposium on international disaster management._

Jack was absolutely certain that Colonel Song was not paying for him to have sex in a hotel linen closet with the best looking man he’d ever met in his life. “I know this is crazy,” he rasped against Gabriel’s sweaty throat, his fingers digging into the other man’s back. Their clothes were strewn about the tiny room and Jack had never been so grateful for all yoga classes Hana had forced him to participate in as he bent almost double under Gabriel’s heavy body. “But I have never been so happy to not be a goddamn astronaut.” 

There was the taste of burnt hotel coffee in Gabriel’s kiss. “That is definitely some hard vacuum.” 

They had met the night before, a meet and greet of attendees, mingling over wine and canapés, and Jack Morrison- very drunk and sick to death of the crab puffs he was stabbing at the face of a very small scientist- had loudly announced that no, the Ecopoint Research and Rescue Centre was not technically part of the UN, yes, they were subject instead to the same treaty governing the International Space Station and for fuck’s sake no he was not a goddamn astronaut.

“I was gonna say, is that hard vacuum in your pocket or are you just happy to be here?” A deep voice curled against him from over the punchbowl. 

“That is the worst pickup line I have ever heard,” Jack blurted out the moment he made eye contact with the excruciatingly tall, dark and handsome with a small UN pin on his lapel staring at him across the buffet table. They stared at each other for a moment, and Jack scowled. “Or. Wait. _Was_ that a pickup line? Are you just really unfunny? Is that a UN thing? Not that there’s anything wrong with…” He shoved the crab puff in his mouth, feeling his face burn under the weight of the other man’s gaze. “I’m gonna shut up now.”

 

“I had no idea, that you guys were assembled the same way.” _HELLO MY NAME IS Gscribblescrabble Ryscribble_ said, stuffing a toast point in his mouth. “That makes sense though, since no one nation can claim one nation can claim jurisdiction.” Jack was certain he was blushing too. “That must be a pain in the ass.”

“You have no idea how hard it was to get a new toaster oven.” Jack laughed, trying not to stare at the nametag.

The man’s dark eyes crinkled at the edges and a smile curled on his lips. “Gabriel Reyes, crisis response logistical team leader. 

“Jack Morrison. Idiot who makes his living mostly saving tourists from seals.” Jack coughed.

“So, can I start over with a new pickup line?” Gabriel shifted on his feet. “I’m really bad at this.”

“God, so am I.” Jack laughed and Gabriel turned a slightly darker shade of red. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Crisis Response Logistical Team Leader.” Jack lifted his glass in a toast.

“Same, Seal-Fighting Tourist Saviour.” Gabriel gently tapped his against Jack’s.

The rest of the room seemed to fade away in the background as they compared the various merits of protective gear, hors d’ouvures and Finnish black metal in the throes of increasing inebriation.

The next day, slightly hungover, Jack caught Gabriel looking vaguely greyish outside a lecture he’d decided to avoid. The hallway, mellow gold and green, warm light streaming through the huge windows, only served to accentuate how ridiculous they both looked, Jack thought.

“Hey, Reyes. Gabriel. Gabe.” He worked through the names, unable to entirely remember which one had ended up being the preferred one, and wondering if he’d dreamt the passionate grope they’d shared in the elevator before a family of Australian tourists came in made the whole thing awkward. The evening was a blank after that.

“Jack.” Gabriel grinned blearily, sucking back a bottle of water and trying to lean nonchalantly on a ficus and failing. “I absolutely do not have the bandwidth to listen to a lecture on water toxins right now. Do you wanna get some coffee?”

Jack rocked on his feet, staring at the orange and gold and deep greens of the elaborate carpeting. “Did we… last night,  I mean, it’s a little blurry but…”

“Make out in the elevator until we scandalized a family of tourists?” Gabriel laughed. “Yeah. You didn’t even have to fight any seals.”

“You remembered.” Jack laughed, finding himself closing the space between them.

“Will you have dinner with me, later? I. I just…” 

“I want to get to know you too.” Jack finished. “Come on. I’ll even buy the coffee.”

 

_InTe## * &@@** 2 C. Ex$@&@)@ -116_

 The garage was lit with the lurid red of the flares and the burning sledge, the ghostly blue glow of the figures circling him. The concrete floor was hard under his knees, but he couldn’t feel the cold seeping up through his suit. The storm blew in snow and ash, and it smelled like burning diesel and ice.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw what had been Torbjorn shambling towards Luc at the door. 

He couldn’t see Angie. Didn’t know if O’Deorain was still alive. Gabriel, dark eyes lit from within with an unearthly light, cocked his head. Limned in the burning light from outside he took one step, then another towards Jack. The other infected shifted, confused.

“Jack.” He said again, voice like black ice.

“I had to fight a lot of seals to get here and save your stupid tourist ass.” Jack’s voice shook, his body trembling. “Let them go, Gabe. Please. Let them go.”

One ice-clawed hand lifted, tentatively, reaching for Jack, Gabriel’s frozen features shifting.

Behind them feathered creature, the one who had been Colonel Amari, shrieked loudly, and there was a blur of glittering white as she streaked past, crashing into him, talons digging deep through his suit and dragging him out into the storm.

 “WE ARE NOT DONE HERE YET!” Doctor Zhou’s voice somehow cut through the roar of the winds.

There was the crack of gunfire somewhere inside, echoing in the cavernous garage, as Jack wrestled with Amari. Her white feahers were splattered with dark, gelid fluid and even as his heating tubes ruptured, burning her, she dug deeper, shredding suit and the skin beneath it.

In another instant, a clawed hand closed around her throat and there was a sound like a branch snapping, as she was torn away from him.

Gabriel stood over him, glowing softly in the gloom. “I shouldn’t have left you in LA.” He said quietly and offered his hand. “I should’ve stayed.”

Jack let him pull him upright, and realized the black ooze splattered in the snow was his blood.

“We have to save them, Gabe. It’s what we do.” Jack splayed a bloody hand on his  husband’s frozen chest, watching the shining mist drift between his stained fingers.

“It’s what we do.” 


	9. NINE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!

_THE VAULT, ANTARCTICA; JUNE 14, 2076. 16:45, Internal Suit Temperature: 20 degrees C. External suit temperature: -120  degrees C_  

 

“JACK!” Lucio screamed as the owl-woman, the former Egyptian officer, dragged him out into the raging storm where the Sledge still burned in the howling winds. O’Deorain lay limp on the concrete and he couldn’t see Angie.

There was just the slow approach of his dead friend, and the faintly glowing figures in the dark.

He hadn’t expected Reyes, roiling blue mist even colder than the surrounding air, to go following Jack, and he said a prayer for his friends as he fumbled for the gun he’d cobbled together.

In a moment of hysteria, he realized it looked like the bastard child of a hair dryer and a subwoofer, and he was glad the environmental suit covered his face. He didn’t want these bastards to see his las expression as ugly laugh-crying.

Resigned, Lucio pulled the trigger on the heat gun, gasping as a nearly-solid ball of superheated air burst outwards with a loud bang, bulleting towards Torbjorn’s shambling, icy corpse. The recoil knocked him back and both he and the former engineer blinked in surprise as the little man’s torso cracked and splintered, a hiss of red steam erupting from the break.

His suit’s HUD showed the massive temperature difference, and he saw the others circle him warily. The gun was slow to recharge, even hooked into the miniforge, and he backed against the garage’s doorframe, brandishing it in the most menacing way he could manage. “I WILL FRY ALL OF YOU UNLESS YOU BACK THE HECK OFF!”

Doctor Zhou perched on top of the snowcat, icicles glittering in the air around her. From the darkness, the ruined corpses of Wilhelm and Doctor Winston shambled. Worse,  the station’s engineer, Olivia, staggered out, blue mist hissing out of the ragged joints where ice stitched her broken body together.

“What do you think you can do to all of us with that tiny little thing?” She asked, tilting her head with an impish smile. A flick of her wrist and a wall of ice filled the garage door, splintering the glow of the burning Sledge into a thousand orange-tinted rainbows. “You can’t…”

There was a resounding crack and her eyes widened, everyone else falling still. Lucio brought the heat gun up as Doctor Zhou turned to see Angie brandishing Jack’s rifle like a bat.

“I don’t know how to get this thing to fire.” The doctor’s hands closed tighter on the barrel. “LUC NOW!”

Another ball of super-heated gas, but Zhou scrambled off the snowcat, shoving Angie aside as she sprang with unnerving, alien speed to the rafters. Angie was in the vehicle a moment later, shouting at Lucio to get a move on.

He flung himself into the cab moments before Doctor Winston’s claws raked the door’s surface.

“She’s got us iced in.” He gasped, struggling with the miniforge as Angie tried to start the snowcat. “If I overload the forge, I can probably bring it down and you can…”

The truck shook violently as Wilhelm pounded on the roof. There was the high pitched shriek of icy spikes dragging across the sides.

“We’ve lost everyone else!” She nearly growled at him as the engine sputtered to life and she shoved it into gear. “I’m just going to drive through it. Jack wouldn’t want us to…”

The wall exploding inwards cut her words short, ice chunks pinging off the snowcat’s windshield, and Lucio thought his heart would stop.

Reyes was there, dead eyes glowing blue in the gloom as he strode through the broken shards of ice. And beside him…

Beside him was Jack. His blonde hair stuck in crystalline spikes and his skin was ice white, cracked like the surface of a thawing pond. As Reyes moved past them, grabbing Winston by the throat in one fluid, brutal move, Jack paused, tapping on the window.

“Get going.” He said as if nothing was wrong. “Get out of here, Luc, and tell them not to come back here.”

“Jack.” Angie choked and he smiled, just a little bit.

“Tell Colonel Song I’m sorry, I won’t be finishing my contract after all.” He patted the door. “Go. We got this.” He was gone in a blur, the snowcat lurching as he leapt up, and off the roof of it, and in the rear cameras, Lucio watched him drag the armoured ghoul that had been Wilhelm and slam him into the floor.

 “You heard the boss.” He said, trying to keep his voice level. “Hit it.”

 

_VOSTOK RESEARCH STATION, ANTARCTICA; JUNE 15, 2076. 09:04_

They’d made it as far Vostok station, the damaged snowcat grinding up on a team of panicked Russians. Lucio had stumbled out into the clear dark and had almost gotten on his knees and kissed the gently packed snow around them

Later, while they sat in individual quarantine, Lucio pleaded with Colonel Song to get someone to just hit the place with an ICBM.

“There are irreplaceable works of art, literature, science in there.” She sighed over the video comms.  “The UN and world governments are already fighting over…”

“It’s swarming with a deadly ice parasite.” Lucio gestured irritably with a juice box. “Jack and Torb, LENA for god’s sake. The whole staff there. They’re dead, Colonel. Jack is GONE.”

“I know. I’m working on it, but Ecopoint doesn’t…” Her face shuttered, and he knew he’d pushed too far.

“HANA.” Lucio started but then the ground beneath Vostok station trembled, the comms shuddering. “Colonel, what the hell was that?”

“Satellite feeds are showing….” She scowled at another monitor. “The power plant at the Vault just blew. But how..?”

“It was Jack.” He said, glancing across the room, imagining he could see through the heavy walls. “It had to be Jack.”

 

_ECOPOINT STATION, ANTARCTICA; JULY 27, 2076. 06:00. Satellite feed data_

 

The storm had cleared shortly after the explosion, and Lucio scrolled through the images back in the safety and warmth of the station. Angie had retreated to her lab, pouring over O’Deorain’s data, and her ranting commentary. He hadn’t seen her in days.

He scanned over the wreckage of the Sledge, where no one would ever retrieve Lena’s body, and took a sip of coffee to pretend the twist in his guts wasn’t there. 

Then he saw it.

The tiny cairn built beside it. And then another. And another. A neat row of grave markers. Lena. Torbjorn. The staff of the Vault. The infected.  Each of them, marked and memorialized.

And there, in the unmoving snow, the air still as a grave since the storm.

Two pairs of footprints. 

He followed them until they disappeared from the satellite feed’s range.

Lucio took another long sip of coffee and carefully set the mug down. He selected the images and let his fingers linger over the keyboard.

 “Just don’t make him cry this time, ok?” He said softly. “Be good to each other.”

 

_ECOPOINT STATION, ANTARCTICA; JULY 27, 2076. 06:15. Satellite feed data. Delete._


End file.
